My big brother Luke (The Walking Dead Game)

6 - Wheezing

Luke was out the front gathering dry sticks to make a small fire so we could eat.

I sat by Kenny as he spoke softly, bedridden for an entire day. Luke never focused on him long enough to question it to be anything more than a hurt ankle. I could tell he was getting more and more ill by the second.

"I miss Katja and Duck." he moaned gently as I felt his forehead, the fever had just set in a little while ago. I wanted him to feel safe the entire time.

"I know."

"I'm going to be with them soon." he whispered right next to my ear. Warm breath travelling towards me. I reach out to hold his hand, he grasps it as well as his feeble fingers could.

"You're really not doing so well Kenny, can I tell Luke?" I say nervously, his health was slowly decreasing. It had been for a long time, even when I first met him in that barn.

"He'll kill me on the spot. I deserve to suffer, to wait it out." He spoke in a husky voice and every breath he took he wheezed.

I walked into the kitchen and looked outside the window, Luke was still trying to get the fire started. I reached inside the cupboard and grabbed a bottle of water. I took a few sips and then went back over to Kenny.

"You should drink something." I attempted to pass him the bottle. His dull eyes looked up at me, so much pain in his expression.

"Don't waste your water on me, you might need that. I don't need it." He spluttered at the end of his sentence, blood trickled down the side of his mouth. I felt like my heart was dropping into my stomach. I grabbed the nearest rag and wiped his face.

"Clem, you're a brave girl. Keep it that way, Luke can't always be there so be prepared when things start going downhill." he struggles to get his words out. I couldn't bare to see him like this. I attempt to cry but nothing seemed to come out, it was as if death had become such a common occurrence.

This time it was different, it was Kenny.

"You can't leave me Kenny." I say pressing my forehead against his chest. It was only a  few weeks or so since I had found him again, I couldn't lose him all over again.

"I shot Ben and I managed to survive the herd that trapped us." Kenny spits. Nobody knew how Kenny got out of that one, most likely pure luck and power.

"I know, Christa told me" I admit, placing the water bottle down on the floor as I knelt beside him.

"I survived because I believed I could, things still had to be done I couldn't give up. Whatever you go through Clem, you never give up. Whatever they throw at you, you hit it right back." Finally my tears start to roll down my cheeks as Kenny cooes.

"So why are you giving up now?" I whimper, a stutter in my breath.

"I'm not giving up, my time is up." He splutters as his mouth fills with blood again. His face looked like ice but his temperature felt hot enough to burn my skin.

"But I need you Kenny." I needed him, he had known me the longest, I felt a connection between us unlike any other survivor out there.

"If you needed me, you would of died when I wasn't with you. Become a warrior Clem, not a worrier." He coughed again, another trickle of blood falling down his chin.

Luke walked in to see me beside the ill man. I just gave him a half smile, but the game was up.

"What the fuck is going on?" Luke asks in disbelief, quickly darting over to the couch at the sight of my fake emotions.

"Kenny's not doing so good." I admit, looking up to him with my wary eyes. I had to tell Luke now, there was no getting out of it now.

"He was bit?" Luke strokes the top of his head in a panic, I felt as if it had been a long time since Luke had to deal with 'the turn'. "So when were you going to tell me Clem?" Luke added as he begins to pace, threading his fingers through his greasy hair.

"Not now Luke." I squeeze Kenny's hand, he was slowly slipping away. I didn't know if I was so prepared now. But after everything, maybe I was ready? Kenny began to groan, I stood back in horror expecting him to sit up and chew my face off but instead he began to speak.

"Luke....make sure this girl stays safe." Kenny croaks. He weakly lifts up his finger on his other hand and points towards me. Luke was listening contently as he positioned himself on the arm of the couch with his own arms folded over.

"Alright Kenny." Luke replied in a calm voice.

Kenny continues to wheeze, me and Luke just stare at him waiting for the inevitable to happen. My eyes felt like waterfalls as I kept feeling Kenny's arm for a pulse until at one point no pulse could be found and the wheezing stopped altogether. I stare at the corpse, an entire life gone.

"He's going to turn." I whisper as if the man was just sleeping. I pick myself up off of the floor and wipe away my tears, the reanimated Kenny wouldn't be the same person as the boat loving Kenny I once knew.

"Clem you might want to go out of the room". Luke mentions as he pulls out the machete from the sheath on his back and bites down on his bottom lip.

"You can't, I...." I whimper again fighting the tears, did I want to do it myself? What was wrong with me?

"We can't use a gun, you know that." Luke explained. I glanced down at Kenny's body, lifeless and grey.

After a few seconds of decision making I trundle away into the bedroom I had adopted and called my own.

A few seconds later I hear a slice. The machete cutting through flesh and cracking a skull. Just to get to the brain full of memories inside. Destroy the brain. He was with Katja and Duck now.

I twirl an old bed sheet around my arms and timidly walk out of the bedroom trying not to see the man I once knew in his current state.

"Clem! Don't look over there." Luke warned me, but I was already one step ahead.

"We can bury him, using this." I passed him the sheet, but he just stood there. Staring at it blankly for a few seconds.

"We shouldn't have to do this." He sighs, looking down at his shoes.

"We don't have a choice. Nobody gets choices anymore." I turn and walk back into the bedroom to gather my thoughts. I missed Kenny already.

I wait for a little while, staring blankly at the white wall as I let my brain refresh itself. I scratched my fingernails into the mattress and fought the tears. It was only a sharp knock at the half open door that shook me out of my trance.

"I saw a shovel out back. Do you want to help?" Luke morbidly asks sympathetically.

I nod slowly.

I walk outside with Luke and begin digging the hole, the bed in which an old friend would lay for the rest of their existence as a decaying corpse. Horrible to think about, but it was only the truth.

It was really hard to dig at the soil as it was slightly frozen from the cold weather. I barely managed to get any dirt up until Luke came and helped start me off a small dip. It was dark by the time we had finished the burial. I looked at the dig site and said a few words in my head, I wasn't ready to say them aloud to Luke.

I feel the aging male put his arms around me, pulling me in tightly. I felt safe with Luke.

"We're going to be fine Clem." Luke lies straight through his teeth.

"I know you're lying" I look up at his halfshaven face.

"I can't be right all the time" He laughs. I pull away from his hug and give off another half smile. I watch him chew the inside of his lip.

"I'll do whatever I can to protect you, me and you we're a team. We're going to be together until the very end now. You know that right? I'm metaphorically tethered to you." He lightly chuckles at the thought and I just shake my head, actually managing a real smile for the first time all day.

"Okay, I get it. You won't loose track of me."

"We'll find somewhere were we can live, maybe even stay here forever. Hopefully a massive group will swoop by and take us in and not try to attack us." Luke shrugs at the thought. Sounds about right for a classical pipe dream.

Even the smallest thing in my mind attempted to make me happier even if it was for a couple of seconds. I thought about the happy and safe place for a while.